Prodigy line adjustment

I was helping a buddy kite in light winds yesterday with his 9.5m prodigy (2013). I think it was the free ride bar but it could have been fusion… (I’ve only ridden razors on the freestyle bar for the last couple of years). His setup had the rear lines on the center point adjustment of the kite between turn fast/slow. Conditions were light but rideable; definitely too light to jump well. The bar wasn’t depowered at all. In the sky, the kite flew quickly, easy to loop, etc. What I noticed though is that even with the bar pulled in fully the rear lines still had slack in them. Is that normal for the prodigy? I was amazed that it turned and quickly. All of my other kites when the bar is fully sheeted in, the rear lines are tight. The only noticeable downfall was relaunching the kite (on snow). Simply pulling in the bar on one side did not allow easy relaunch from the bladder side down position. (It was easier to reverse launch the kite the way you do with foils).

So my question is: should the rear lines be shortened so they are taught when sheeted in? Or are floppy back lines part of the kite design and the wind was just too light?

Yes, the Prodigy is meant to have that bit of slack in the back lines. You can remove a bit to by using the knot closer to the bar on the back line attachments if you like. The kite’s design, and a bit of back line slack, help make it very resistant to stalling.

For better relaunch and faster turning, move the back line attachments on the kite right to the wingtip (instead of the middle). This is pretty universally considered the best setting on the first generation Prodigy. For the new Prodigy, there are just two attachment points - the front attachment is where the previous model’s back/wingtip attachment was, and the new wingtip attachment is now further out. Basically, we moved the attachments further back for the new kite.

The 9.5m Prodigy is a fantastic kite, our #1 seller last year in fact!